Church in Africa faces challenges of education, societal corruption

Analyzing the remarkable growth of the Church in Africa, the former superior general of the Society for African Missions praised the hospitality and vitality that characterizes Christian life there and observed that the Church faces great challenges in the areas of education and societal corruption.

“With the number of children looking for schools, the Church is no longer capable of doing it alone and often the state just doesn’t have the resources,” says Bishop Kieran O’Reilly of Killaloe (Ireland).

Corruption, he added, is “a terrible disease really and does awful damage to the fabric of everything. Good people, well qualified, can’t get jobs because they don’t pay the bribe. The whole infrastructure of power can be so centered on corrupt practices and payment. The Church is trying, but it is very difficult because it is something so rooted in many cultures now and it must be said that it is very often due to the leadership and to outsiders who have come and taken advantage for whatever purpose, maybe to extract resources.”

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